Protiv straha: članci, izjave i javni nastupi 1987.–1992.
This collection brings together political texts, interviews, speeches and public appearances by Ivo Banac from the key period of the breakup of Yugoslavia and the rise of Croatian statehood.
1,128 Banac, a dissident, historian and liberal intellectual at the time (later the president of the Liberal Party), writes about fear as the main tool of the totalitarian and nationalist regime – fear of freedom, truth, minorities and different opinions. The texts criticize Yugoslav communism, Serbian centralism and Milošević's propaganda, but also warn of the dangers of Croatian nationalism, HDZ's authoritarianism and Tuđman's policies (e.g. on "national reconciliation" and revisionism).
Banac advocates a civic state, liberal democracy, minority rights (especially Serbs in Croatia), anti-fascism and opposing fear through open dialogue and intellectual courage. The book is a testimony to the struggle for pluralism in turbulent times – from the founding of the HSLS and HSLS to the 1991–1992 war.
The style is sharp, argumentative, erudite – Banac uses historical parallels (e.g. with fascism and Stalinism) to warn of the dangers. This is a key document of Croatian liberal thought in the 1990s – a call for courage against the fear that shaped the breakup of Yugoslavia and the beginnings of the Croatian state. It is revered as an intellectual resistance to populism and authoritarianism.
One copy is available
